Pedal Steel Music

Hello fans and fellow players,

I just talked to the Jackson Guitar Company on the phone and the president, David Jackson said he’s excited about the new guitar they have coming out and to be looking for across the board great deals on any new Jackson guitars sold through dealers. The new guitar I’ve been talking to David about for several years now appears as though it’s going to be a genuine little monster. Light weight, inexpensive and very affordable with all the professional amenities.

Since I am a Mullen dealer also, this wonderful little company is also coming out with a new cable operated steel guitar. I’m very much looking forward to seeing all the differences in these two new steel guitars. Mullen has hardly ever done anything wrong, always designed and built great steel guitars. Between these two great builders and the very successful GFI company, we should have the entire gamut totally covered.

The good thing here is we are looking forward to our next big manufacturer’s party for the public which will be showing off these guitars for all you folks that are Nashville’s greatest friends. Anybody who is interested in new guitars and new designs and anything that is pushing our little world forward is welcome to attend. I’m sure there will be plenty of great food, astounding steel guitar players and elbow rubbing between all steel guitar players and the builders.

The last party we threw three years ago was extremely successful with Nashville star singers, players and many steel players from across the United States that helped us eat all the great food which unfortunately we had some left over at the end of the day. Be looking for a notice coming out on this soon.

Again I am being asked questions, some of the most common ones I’ll do my best to answer. These few questions that I would like to answer concern my first learning episodes. In the very beginning of course, I listened to a lot of the radio. I always had a quarter or so to listen to any good steel I found on the jukebox providing my Vespa motor scooter didn’t need a fill-up.

Remember the story I told you all once about Buddy Emmons having to loan me a 0.70 guitar string to use instead of a brake cable for me to be able to get home on my first visit to hearing him play? I needed this string desperately to operate the rear brakes on my scooter as I had about 25 miles of drive home through Norfolk and Portsmouth, Virginia. It was extremely dangerous to do it with no brakes in heavy traffic.

But instead of putting the string on my scooter, I put it on my steel guitar when I got home. That shows you what a Buddy Emmons fan I was that first day. It’s amazing what a fourteen year old kid will do.

My father managed the music store in downtown Norfolk and that got me discounts on 45 rpm single records. So anything that was exceptionally good, I saved my school lunch money and bought it. When I was learning to play, there were no teaching CDs, tab books or DVDs.

Some of the great records that I bought in that era were everything Jerry Byrd had out on Mercury, Chet Atkins had out on RCA, Merle Travis on Capitol, Bud Isaacs on what Webb Pierce had out and of course, the incredible Les Paul and Mary Ford.

Steel guitar players didn’t really help each other back in those days. As a matter of fact, every steel player seemed to be totally jealous of anybody else learning anything and wouldn’t help a fellow player out to save his life. Nobody would even tell how they tuned their guitar. Looking back I can’t see how steel guitar got started at all.

I would try to play along with Johnny Sibert, Don Helms, Jerry Byrd and many of the other Nashville steel players. Wow! What fun! Then I started hearing a rash of great west coast players that were working with the 8 to 12 piece western swing bands.

Then I saw pictures of double and triple neck steel guitars and when I heard my first Webb Pierce recording with pedal guitar, the rest of my life was doomed. I knew I had been put here on Earth for steel guitar.

Jamming and playing in a band and joining little country bands around town definitely did me a world of good. Of course, when I put my first pedal on my guitar, that exposed me to harmonies, triads and the beginning of elementary chords. I was serious from day one and was familiar with about all the players and their styles. Even listening to lead guitar players such as Chet, Merle and Les helped my playing a lot.

I loved the great old Jerry Byrd style, then Bud Isaacs stole my heart and of course Walter Haines, then Buddy Emmons with their very fast C6th playing warped my head pretty seriously.

I always had a steel guitar that held me back in the beginning. This is one reason I have this steel guitar store now. I want to help everybody I can to get a good steel guitar that will make a good player out of them. I’m very serious about voicing opinions on guitars for all these reasons. If I don’t feel like I’ve sold you something that is going to help you and be good for you for a good while, I’d rather not sell it to you.

I see so many people that have made what I feel are serious mistakes in buying a guitar from Ebay, Craigslist or a neighbor. Some of these guitars are so bad that they will do nothing but discourage a new player totally.

Remember, steel guitar is not one of those instruments that falls under the old adage, “you get what you pay for”. This is not really true as sometimes it’s possible to get a great guitar for very little money and other times, no matter how many thousands you spend, you can end up with a piece of junk.

Why I’m here is reason enough to use me as I have been buying, building and playing steel guitar professionally for many years. Helping a new player or older player is my deal totally.

There are many methods to learn to play. Steel guitar is written out in many of them. What do I recommend? Tab? Notes? Just using my ear? Getting a personal instructor? Or what? The answer to these questions is, we are all different and we all learn in different ways.

I had a real good ear for picking things up when I was beginning. I would hear something I liked and look for it over and over until I found it on the neck of the guitar and then play it over and over. Some of my first songs were from Jerry Byrd’s instrumental albums.

I realize many learning players out there are doing the same thing with my CDs. If I get a phone call at the store and a newer player tells me that they are going to be using my CDs for learning, I would discount these CDs deeply as I do to most of the readers of my tips sheets.

The big message I’m trying to deliver to each and every one of you is I’m here for you. If I’m not helping somebody to learn to play in one way or another, I’m not doing what I was put here for. So call me, email me and I’ll do anything I can to help your playing and love for steel guitar.

Just a reminder that I’m giving you free shipping within the continental U.S. on any guitar you buy during the months of January and February.

Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we’ll try to save you a lot of money.

The friend of all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday

Hello fellow players,

Here we are the 9th of the new year. Where has time gone? The year is flying by. I’m looking for this year to be another good one, being a little shocked at how good last year was. A lot of the nay-sayers have said how they thought it was definitely going to be a very poor year.

Now we are facing all the fatalists that say December 21st of this year is going to be the end of civilization on this planet. How long have we been hearing that? If it’s the end it doesn’t matter, but don’t quit your playing job because I’ll probably be writing to you in January of 2013.

We were mentioning food in the last newsletter. There is a place where the steel guitar club of northern Tennessee meets on the second Tuesday of every month. It’s called Steamboat Bill’s. It is owned by a true Cajun from the south coast. Many people in this area like it very much.

I can speak highly of the gumbo, either shrimp or pork and chicken. However, the crayfish is probably great too. I don’t know as I will never eat anything that much uglier than I am. It would be a good place for you to try if you come to Hendersonville to eat. It’s on the water about a mile from the store here and has great ambiance and atmosphere.

I have a friend from Ashtabula, Ohio that won’t come within 400 miles of Nashville without eating there. Stan Cosper is a dear friend from his Navy days in Norfolk, Virginia and is quite a connessoir of oceanic food.

I still have some big plans to have an open house here at the store and invite some steel guitar builders to meet and see Nashville’s new players eye to eye and talk about new ideas and things that are coming down the chute.

Speaking of new ideas, I mentioned David Jackson doing a new steel guitar using cables and I’m all for it, however I am also for something I’ve learned from the automobile companies in this country and that is the more parts a company can make their products have in common, the easier it will be to find parts for certain guitars as time goes by.

For instance, if we had at least four or five companies that used the same bell cranks, tuning keys, pickups, same scale fretboards etc. then the easier it would be to keep our guitars perfectly playable. Plus the manufacturers could benefit from mass buying and make guitars less expensively.

You will notice that pretty well all steel guitars use the same style and thread size steel guitar legs these days. There aren’t but about three different styles of tuning keys so many of these items already being standardized among brands. You can see where manufacturers can save some money.

Did you realize that there is only one manufacturer making door handles for automobiles coming out of Detroit? And the Ford glass plant manufactures windows and windshields for about every brand of car made in this country. Of course, we all know how universal tires are.

So just think about how wonderful it would be if steel guitar manufacturers would get together and make their guitars a little bit more uniform. We could still have uniqueness in many ways.

The Camaro and the Mustang are two different cars regardless of door handles being made by the same company, tires being made by only three or four companies, all headlights being made by three or four companies.

Strings, fretboards, tuning keys. So the next time you hear about a revolutionary new steel guitar made in the outback of Pago-Pago, don’t run right out and buy one, then call me in three months for parts.

I’m seeing many people today buy weird, off brand guitars off eBay that barely work. They call me for parts that they would have no chance of ever finding. Everything will have to be custom machined and when I tell them this, their reply usually is, “Yeah, but look how much money I saved.”

Remember, the harder a steel guitar is to build, the harder it’s going to be to find parts for them. The same with the more rare a steel guitar is, the less use it will have in being a professional workhorse. You don’t have to have an Emmons pushpull, however there are several guitars today that sound very good that have good parts interchangeability.

Of course, how many guitars a company has sold can have a big bearing on easy serviceability to all. If you’d like to have a list of which guitars have sold the most, let me know. It can make you a happy steel guitar owner in the future.

Yes, there I was worrying about steel guitar becoming obsolete and extinct and seeing the piano stores in town doing what I think is a great business. But I’m seeing now that this isn’t true. A couple of letters ago I touched on new piano sales being so bad. Upright pianos, spinets and not selling as well as the big grand pianos.

In this strange world of music, we are witnessing the staple of all music, the piano, going through hard times and the change that no one would have ever thought possible a few years ago. I found this video on YouTube to be interesting

Mott Music – Doc Talk

And here is steel guitar still being manufactured and fresh thinkers like the Jackson family still moving upward and onward. Let’s hope that steel guitar has got the future that I think it has. It seems pretty obvious that it has as even I am seeing steel guitar players come from the ranks of pianists.

The world of music is not a contest between piano and steel guitar but how well each are played. Piano has been around longer and it has developed incredible players. Steel guitar only having been moving forward since the 1950’s but having made some tremendous jumps lately, will be nipping at the heels of great music very soon. The pros and cons of both can be debated for years, but at least steel guitar is getting into the contest.

As we all know, this can be a terrible shame, but I’m glad to see steel guitar doing well in the middle of the downswing of other instruments. Gibson standard guitar company seems to be doing very well and I’m hoping always will. I will be touching more in the future on different musical instruments and how they are faring in this world of tough economic times.

For now let me give you free shipping within the continental U.S. on any guitar you buy during the months of January and February. Outside of the lower 48, we’ll figure the difference and save you whatever we can. And during these long, cold winter evenings ahead of us, I encourage you to sit down behind your steel guitar and practice, practice, practice.

See our monthly specials at … www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html.

The friend to all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday

Hello fans and fellow players,

Here we are, New Year’s has passed, Christmas pressures and hubbub are on their way to being a memory and we can finally settle down to try to endure the cold harsh winter unless you’re somewhere like McAllen, Texas or Jacksonville, Florida. Of course, we all have a choice. We can fight snow or fight alligators.

I’ve never played the gulf coast much except for being booked in with the big recording stars like Johnny Rivers, Billy Walker, Johnnie Paycheck and the like. I will have to say I found our lower coast to be extremely enjoyable in many ways. Good people, food and all the alligator you can eat.

There is a different twist that residents put on country music on the south coast, a twist where Fender steel guitars and old Ralph Mooney styles blend in like no others. The lead guitar and rhythm sections also seem to have their own feeling of soul.

I remember working with Rufus Tibideau. I actually feel that a good recording company could make a sweep through this section of the U.S. and find some great music stars. I played with a few myself that have done pretty well. Doug Kershaw is one of them and of course Johnny Rivers is a native of New Orleans.

It is such a wonderful, unique style of country music, so much so that possibly it shouldn’t be called country. Jimmy C. Newman, Jo-el Sonnier and Eddie Raven are three guys from the lower coast that have done real well in country music. It seems like all of these people that I’m reminiscing about used steel guitar.

I know that Sonny Garrish has done several hit tunes with great stars . Of course, this is where Mr. Lloyd Green is from, Mobile, Alabama. Don Davis, Doug Jernigan and Curly Chalker all hailed from the panhandle of Florida. So there could definitely be something in the water there.

But what I’m talking about today is that great, funky south coast style that the Cajuns are so renowned for. Sort of like crayfish, hush puppies, clams and lightly done alligator, you just about have to be there to get the full effect. This is quite likely to be a wonderful place for a vacation. The recreation, warm temperatures, the smell in the air of the ocean and the infectious Cajun music is just about wonderful. Wish I were there.

I know many steel guitar players in this region and nicer people there aren’t. They all seem to be flowing over with that good old southern hospitality.

Since I’ve touched on the subject of food, I would like to recommend some places in my area here near the store. It seems like all of you ask where a good restaurant is when you come to see me.

The restaurants seem to have a way of changing, however me being an extremely picky eater and very demanding in where I eat, I have pretty well weeded out the ordinary and can recommend some pretty fine places. Tennessee is not real famous for great food, hence the reason for me recommending the best I can find.

First of all, let me recommend a Mediterranean restaurant very near the store. It has been on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives and many people rave about it. It’s where Ricky Scaggs, The Oak Ridge Boys and the great engineer Snake Reynolds eat regularly.

There used to be a lot of hoop-de-doo in the past about a place called The Blue Goose, however it has changed hands and has pretty well slipped to the depths of mediocrity.

If you come to see me, I won’t let you go to a place that is bad, so ask me about a place called The Chop House and I promise you, you will never have any better pork chops, ribs or chicken at the low price that they will charge you for it.

If nothing else, come on out and let’s have lunch and listen to some great steel guitar players. Doug Jernigan, Penn Pennington and many other great musicians will vouch for my recommendations.

I appreciate all the responses I got to the Red Rhodes newsletter like this very kind note from Dave Hopping.

Bobbe-
Not to worry at all about the Red Rhodes/Mesa-Boogie stuff. Leo Fender was known to call Telecasters “Broadcasters” up into the ’60s. Even though I don’t get to do as much business with Steel Guitar Nashville as I’d like, I always read “Bobbe’s Tips” first thing and appreciate the stories, tips, jokes, and everything else. You’re a good friend to the steel community.
Kindest regards
Dave Hopping

Check out our monthly specials at www.steelguitar.net/monthlyspecials.html and we’ll try to save you a lot of money.

The friend of all bar holders,
Bobbe Seymour
www.steelguitar.net
sales@steelguitar.net
www.youtube.com/bobbeseymour

Listen To Steel Guitar Music Streaming 24 Hours A Day!

Steel Guitar Nashville
123 Mid Town Court
Hendersonville, TN. 37075
(615) 822-5555
Open 9AM – 4PM Monday – Friday
Closed Saturday and Sunday